Tuesday, 27 May 2014

As the
polls predicted UKIP has again dominated the European Elections
in Britain winning more votes and more seats than any other party.
And
whilst Farage’s party trailed in behind the SNP, Labour and the Tories in
Scotland some 140,000 Scots still voted for their ‘dog-whistle’ racist
politics.

Why did they
win? And what are the likely consequences for the Independence referendum?

Incredible as
it may seem UKIP with its Home Counties base and right wing views are regarded
by many voters not just as anti-EU and anti-immigrant, but also as anti-establishment. The more Farage is attacked by the
chattering classes and the metropolitan political elite the more popular he becomes.

This is a remarkable phenomena given he is himself part of
that elite. Here is a public schoolboy, millionaire merchant banker and former
Tory backwoodsman now masquerading as a ‘rebel’ who sticks two fingers up to EU bureaucrats
and corrupt Westminster politicians.
Whatever else may be said about his odious, reactionary
message it is clear, simple and oft repeated. UKIP dominated these elections
with a message that is not difficult to comprehend. Those looking for simple
answers, easy scapegoats and an ‘ordinary guy’ hero rushed to him in their
droves. His face was never off TV and his message was co-sponsored by
several tabloid newspapers.

Millions of Britons in
the middle of the worst recession in 80 years have seen their wages fall 17% in real terms since 2010 instead of turning to the left for answers
have thus far turned to the right. The right has persuaded many people that the collapse in their living standard has been caused by immigrants and claimants [who either work too cheaply or not at all] rather than the bankers and corporate capitalism.

We are asked by UKIP to
ignore the fact that immigrants make this country wealthier by coming here,
that they pay far more taxes into the UK Treasury than they take out, that our
NHS and other key services benefit enormously from their labour, that
immigrants come here for work not for paltry benefits, that young workers from
Poland and Spain have halted Scotland’s population decline, that our quality of
life is greatly improved by multiculturalism and that Scots themselves have
emigrated for centuries in search of a better life.

This is why the right has done so well in these
elections and the left, such as it is, has done so badly. The left must clarify our message afresh, deliver it with aplomb and passion and then purposefully confront the
racism of UKIP and its Tory, Labour and Lib Dem ‘bedfellows’ in this debate.

The results of these elections will be fiercely
contested in so far as they tell us anything about the Independence debate. We on the
YES side argued UKIP was a xenophobic, English party by and large
rejected by voters here. That view is somewhat undermined by the fact 140,000
Scots voted for them. Yet it retains some potency since UKIP topped the poll in England whereas
they came fourth here in Scotland. However it would have been much better for Yes if
UKIP had not secured a Euro seat here.

The Scottish Greens will again be disappointed by the results. I was one of those who
felt they were the best electoral vehicle for halting UKIP’s drive into
Scotland. But they secured only one more MEP across Britain as a whole and in Scotland their 8.5% of the vote was only marginally better than the 7.5% they got in 2009. This suggests
they lack wider appeal as ‘the torchbearer of radical and progressive politics
in Scotland’ despite the claims of their election press releases to the contrary. Writing in ‘Bella
Caledonia’ Mike Small of the Scottish Independence Convention went even further
and concluded ‘the harsh truth is the Greens lack charisma, popularism and bite. They are
rootless and unable to reach beyond the Guardianista’.

In due course we might all reflect on what might have
been. Perhaps if the Greens had joined the Red/Green alliance proposed by some of us in the Greens and the SSP this time last year it could have made the difference. And it might
also have been the test bed for a similar initiative in the more fruitful
Holyrood elections of 2016?

Finally, however the last word on these elections goes to that
‘expert’ of Scottish politics the Bradford MP George Galloway who apparently
insists UKIP and the SNP are ‘two cheeks of the same arse’. This
nonsense surely secures for Galloway the title of the biggest ‘arse’ in
Scottish politics today?

Monday, 19 May 2014

Scotland's richest people saw their fortunes rise 19% last year according to the Sunday Times Rich List published this weekend. The wealthiest 100 Scots now own £25bn.
At the top of the rich list with £1,300million is the Grant family who own whisky distillers Glenfiddoch among other brands.

Whilst the majority of us continue to endure the consequences of the worst economic recession in 80 years and the impact of the Westminster austerity measures the wealthiest millionaires and billionaires rake it in.
Across the UK as a whole 1,000 people own the equivalent of 1/3rd of Britain's entire GDP.

Those who benefit from this state of affairs would have you believe this ever widening gap between the rich and poor is inevitable, or the result of market forces we cannot control or occurs by accident. The fact is it is the inevitable consequence of the neo-liberal economic policies pursued by successive Westminster regimes. They know exactly what they are doing and they condone the appalling consequences which follow for the poorest in our society.

To my mind these outrageous inequalities are completely unacceptable and will again disgust Scotland's working class majority who realise the huge gap between the rich and poor is not the result of some unhappy accident but is rather the consequence of greater and greater exploitation of the working class majority by a rich capitalist elite.

And all this certainly has a bearing on the Independence referendum in September because Scotland's social democratic and socialist majority demands action to narrow such grotesque inequalities. A Yes vote in September is therefore not only a vote for Independence in my view it is also a vote against the neo-liberal economics and political warmongering offered by Westminster. That is the reason why support for Independence continuous to grow in Scotland's poorest communities. Those who stand to gain most from narrowing the gap live in our most deprived communities. And all of us in the Yes movement must realise an independent Scotland must reverse the trend in wealth distribution or we will have failed its most passionate advocates.